Despite High Gas Prices, Campgrounds Still Full

With a long holiday weekend, many like to take time to get away with their families. For Labor Day weekend, camping is always popular.

You never know what to expect in the camping business, especially when gas prices rise. But at Yogi Bear Campground, the owner tells us, for many campers it’s something they aren't willing to give up.

For weekends like Memorial Day and Labor Day, you expect to see campgrounds full of people. Even with this year’s heat and higher gas prices, campgrounds around KELOLAND were still filled with campers.

"I would consider it economical rather than flying somewhere, but I would prefer camping somewhere over flying somewhere for the cost," Tom Youngblom said.

It's a common theme for many travelers this summer, that's why Yogi Bear Campground’s business is booming.

"It was great, we had a very good year we are up about 10% in revenues so that's perfect," Yogi Bear Campground Owner Bruce Aljets said.

One thing Aljets has noticed in his years of running a campground is no matter what gas prices are or how the economy looks, if people own campers they will come.

"We don't get too concerned about the gas prices because the people, once again the people have a tremendous amount of money invested in their campers they are still going to go camping," Aljets said.

Which is exactly why Youngblom and his family are here, but that's not to say he didn’t feel the pain at the pump.

"Gas prices yeah, it’s pretty expensive pulling a camper now and it hurts the pocket book every time you fill up," Youngblom said.

But something you can't put a price on is family time.

"We love to camp. We don't have enough time to camp but we want to camp more often and the Labor Day weekend is just an awesome time to camp and we love to be together, go to the pool, hit the playground, go for bike rides. And just spend some quality family time together," Youngblom said.

Like all of the holiday weekends this summer, Aljets says the campground was booked to capacity.